Saudi Arabia announced the severance of diplomatic ties with Iran on Sunday, 3 January 2016, in an unexpected step that will destabilise further a region already paying a heavy price for the confrontation between Tehran and Riyadh. The Saudi move came in the wake of very strong reactions on the Iranian side to the execution of a leading Shia cleric in Saudi Arabia, Sheikh Nimr Al-Nimr, for incitement against state institutions and public order. The US Department of State deemed Al-Nimr a “political activist”. The execution of the Shia cleric was one of 47 announced by the Saudi Interior Ministry on Saturday, 2 January 2016. The official Saudi announcement said the executions were related to acts of terrorism. The mass executions took everyone by surprise. Some Western officials described them as a travesty of justice and others lamented what they described as “negligent disregard” for how the executions could inflame the region. The action will likely lead to more instability and mayhem across not only the region, but also the entire Muslim world. World reactions to the executions reflected alarm as well as apprehension over the possible fallout of these developments on international and regional efforts led by the United Nations, pushed by an unprecedented consensus among great powers in the Security Council, aimed at settling the multiple mini-wars ravaging the Middle East and the Arabian Peninsula. The US State Department, in a press statement Saturday, 2 January, said that the United States is “particularly concerned that the execution of prominent Shia cleric and political activist Nimr Al-Nimr risks exacerbating sectarian tensions at a time when they urgently need to be reduced.” The statement added that there is need for regional leaders “to redouble efforts aimed at de-escalating regional tensions”. On 3 January, the US State Department spokesperson said that Washington “believes that diplomatic engagement and direct conversations remain essential to working through differences” and that the US administration would “continue to urge leaders across the region to take affirmative steps to calm tensions”. Illustrating how concerned the United States is over the probable negative repercussions of new tensions between Saudi Arabia and Iran, US Secretary of State John Kerry made a phone call to his Iranian counterpart, Mohamed Jawad Zarif, 3 January to calm the situation. After the cutting off diplomatic relations between Saudi Arabia and Iran, it is difficult to see how the two regional and Muslim powers will jumpstart diplomatic engagement on their own. However, this is an absolute must. And Egyptian diplomacy is called upon to join all international and Arab efforts aiming at containing Saudi-Iranian tensions. I would rather say to lead these efforts, with the Americans, the Europeans and the Arabs. Otherwise, I am afraid we could witness a second “Great Sedition” within the Muslim world. The Saudi executions and the cutting of diplomatic relations with Iran came at time when diplomacy has been scoring successes towards finding political solutions in Syria, Libya, Yemen, and possibly Lebanon, where an embryonic Saudi-Iranian understanding on the election of a Lebanese president was beginning to take hold. In Syria, the Security Council adopted last month Resolution 2254, to implement the Vienna Statements of 30 October and 14 November. In Libya, the council passed Resolution 2259 in December concerning the political agreement signed at Skhirat on 17 December to form a national unity government. The world was paying farewell to 2015 with the hope that these two resolutions would launch a diplomatic and political process that would end two regional crises that have resisted peaceful solutions for more than four years and allowed terrorist groups like the Islamic State and Al-Nusra Front, affiliated with Al-Qaeda, to spread across the Arab world. Similarly, the two decisions came after a visit to Saudi Arabia by Turkish President Erdogan, who has been working to form a front with Saudi Arabia and other Gulf countries against Iran, and trying to drive a wedge between Egypt and the Gulf. In this context, I would add the Saudi decision to launch last month what it termed an Islamic Alliance against terrorism without inviting Iran, Syria and Iraq. Egypt needs to work with international powers and Arab countries to steer the Middle East away from a very grave sectarian confrontation that would doom for years to come diplomatic efforts to settle the proxy wars between Saudi Arabia and Iran in the Middle East. Egypt must also work to contain Turkish attempts to penetrate Arab politics. We must give peace a chance. Otherwise, terrorism, our main enemy today, will go unabated. The writer is a former assistant to the foreign minister.
